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Terry Eagleton, literary critic and professor of cultural theory at the University of Manchester, has won the winter beard award. He received the prize, bestowed by the Beard Liberation Front, "after soundings from informal BLF networks around the country".

BLF spokesman Keith Flett said: "Professor Eagleton is a worthy winner. He has not had a beard at all times in his career, but it is clear that he now understands that facial hair brings added gravitas to his already weighty pronouncements."